“If thou seekest eternal glory, let thyself be humble and meek in the presence of the beloved of God; make thyself the servant of all, and serve all alike. The service of the friends belongs to God, not to them. Strive to become a source of harmony, spirituality and joyfulness to the hearts of the friends and the maid-servants of the Merciful. This is a cause of great satisfaction to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.”
On the afternoon of July 19, 2015, the Triangle NC cluster celebrated its fortieth cycle, highlighting its consistent and focused efforts to reach a new milestone. There are now 1,000 people participating in the core activities in the Triangle—more than half of whom are friends of the Faith.
Friends at the Reflection Gathering
Video of Youth Singing in Celebration
Part of the victory is not that the friends reached this goal in a sudden surge in one three-month cycle, but that they steadfastly worked towards accomplishing this feat over successive cycles during this Plan, particularly in the last nine months. This is a testament to the patient building of different capacities over time, including the capacity to work more harmoniously and to be in a constant mode of learning. At this new stage of development of the Triangle cluster, the friends see their task is to discover what are the new capacities and skills they need to learn and strengthen to cross the next bridge together.
The spirit at the cluster reflection meeting was very high, filled with prayers and songs led by many youth, warmth and friendship shared across all ages and amongst new and veteran believers, and decorations to highlight the cluster’s accomplishment. The presentation also showed the progression of growth over recent cycles and captured qualitative learning.
Counselor Anita Williams addressed more than a hundred friends gathered together. She observed that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would be very happy to be present at such a spiritual gathering. In its 27 December 2005 message, the Universal House of Justice wrote that “Reflection meetings at the cluster level are becoming a forum for the discussion of needs and plans, creating a collective identity and strengthening the collective will.” With some 179 individuals constituting the “hundreds serving thousands,” one can confidently say that the Triangle cluster has a strong sense of community and collective will.
The meeting also closed with rose petals from the Holy Land given to each of the friends: a special token reminding the friends of the sacredness of their work—the teaching work, the community-building process, the creation of the pattern of a New World Order, the diffusion of the Word of God.